Everyone in the class presented on a classroom management concept that was new or something that wasn’t discussed in class. I think a lot of ideas were very interesting but the idea of classroom management differing for physical education interested me the most. There are a lot of similarities between the two that I didn’t realize.

During the presentation, the main worry in physical education classes is safety. The most accidents in a school happen during these classes. In my future elementary classroom, safety is also going to be a main concern. A teacher is liable for the student’s safety in their classroom similar to a gym teacher. A teacher is enclosed in a smaller space compared to a physical education environment which I think makes it a little easier for the teacher. A physical education teacher has an entire gym, or entire football field outside to worry about. There are so many more strict routines and transitions that need to happen as well. Having students wear gym clothes, routines for each game they play, and even more. Another part of managing this environment is the discipline. A lot more fights and angry students can be a problem in a physical education setting compared to a general classroom.

There are a lot of similarities and differences between the two classes after listening to the presentation. I think its important for this strong emphasis on safety to be enforced in physical education as well as a general classroom. Have precise routines for everything as well as modeling these routines can prevent a lot of chaos in a classroom.

Bullying can come in all forms. More popular today teens are going to the internet and bullying behind a computer screen. It’s important to try to eliminate this in your classroom and outside your classroom as well. Students have several obstacles that can prevent or harm learning and adding bullying to the list doesn’t help. Students that aren’t excited to show up to school every morning and afraid of other students aren’t going to try in the classroom and will be anxiously waiting for the bell to dismiss them to go home. Bullying will never fully be removed from schools but promoting a classroom that doesn’t tolerate bullying can go a long way for the school year and more years to come.

There are a couple ways to help promote an anti-bullying environment in the classroom. I think one of the main ways is talking about it in your classroom. Showing students the school’s bullying policies and consequences can scare a lot of bullying away. In my school, they used a lot of scare tactics to scare off bullies. Another way I want to focus on is promoting a sense of community in the classroom. Despite differences in students, I want to create a strong bond in the classroom. In the mornings, I want to make time for morning meetings and allow students to get to know each other more on a personal level through activities. Opening up to students and peers can help create friendships that might’ve not taken place otherwise. A student that is being bullied is a lot more likely to come up to a teacher that is approachable and relatable compared to a teacher that doesn’t seem to care. A strong relationship with students can go a long way.

Knowing that you can’t prevent all bullying in your classroom is a tough thing to accept. Students have so many things that can lower academic achievement and bullying is another thing that can stand in the way. Being visible throughout the day where bullying might take place, educating students, and promoting a community in the classroom can help lower a lot of bullying. If a student is bullying someone else there is most likely a strong reason why. Being able to search to the starter of the problem can help students spend their time at school learning instead.

A growth mindset is the ability to believe that basic abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. This idea is compared to the opposite idea which can be defined as a fixed mindset. This is something that a lot of people don’t think about when going through school but is a critical idea to think about. In a video about mindset created by Dr. Rachel Turney, she mentions the idea that in a fixed mindset the brain and talents are fixed traits compared to a growth mindset believes these are just the starting points. Personally, I don’t think people will learn this concept unless they are also going through education classes and I think its something that all students to need to learn. It affects people in real world and not just in a school setting. Why is this idea important?

I think one of the most common examples of a fixed mindset happens around middle school or high school years. A student takes a math quiz and doesn’t do as well as they might have hoped. Instead of coming to the conclusion that they need to work a little harder or they are almost able to master a concept, they instantly fall back on the idea that they aren’t good at math or that they are stupid. I had similar feelings about chemistry in high school. The problem with this idea is a student shuts down when they receive this criticism. A fixed mindset student loses motivation and shuts down where as a growth mindset student is fueled to work even harder to get better. I want students to have the motivation to learn from what they got incorrect and work even harder.

I think trying to foster a growth mindset in your class is important but also difficult. A big idea that Carol Dweck explains is using the word ‘yet’. “I haven’t mastered this concept…yet.” When a student does poorly on an assignment, it shouldn’t be the end of the world. They should have the want and desire to learn and master these ideas. One main focus for me in my future classroom is to avoid praising intelligence. This can lead students to a fixed mindset. Instead of praising student’s intelligence, I want to praise their effort. As long as students are working hard and giving me their best effort, that’s all you can ask for. Another focus is to expand and create diverse teaching strategies to promote a learning environment for all students. Different strategies are going to help different students and I want to be able to foster to all my students in my classroom. In my classroom, I want students to be able to grow throughout the year and focusing on a growth mindset sets these students up to do so.

When I think back to when I was in elementary and middle school, I have several distinct memories and I think a lot of this is due to strong relationships with my teachers. Teachers that made me feel respected and valued in the classroom definitely had a positive impact on my learning in the classroom. Relationships with students can open new doors that would otherwise be nonexistent.

Everyone wants to feel valued and cared for, especially younger elementary students. This young years for students have a strong impact on shaping who they are going to be and realizing you are going to be with these students around 8 hours a day is a lot to think to about. Calling on all students equitably and correcting students in a constructive way are two areas that I want to focus on in my classroom.

Teachers can pick favorites in the classroom without even realizing they are doing it. The teacher might call on one student the majority of the time because the teacher knows they know the answer and wants to move on as quickly as possible. I have seen this happen so often when I was going through school. One way I want to prevent this in my classroom is by having a simple checklist or a name drawing system to make sure everyone is able to participate. Writing every student’s name on a Popsicle stick and drawing from a cup makes being called on more fun and makes sure everyone is actively participating in the classroom.

Correcting students in a constructive way is another idea that I want to focus on. Disciplining students is just a part of school and the way you go about doing this can have a positive or negative effect on the students. When correcting students, the main goal is to have them reflect on the action they did and how they can make a better choice in the future. If students walk away from me thinking they hate me and they are going to try to not get caught in the future, then I believe I failed in a positive constructive response. Removing sarcasm or disgust when correcting students can also help in this idea.

There are so many ways to promote positive relationships with students in the classroom and I look forward to learning more about this. I understand how important these relationships are in the classroom. A student isn’t going to feel comfortable or want to open up to a teacher if they don’t feel like they can trust them or respect them. Focusing on these relationships can better their learning and can make my job as a teacher more enjoyable.

Being trauma informed in the classroom is an idea that teachers are bringing more attention to in the recent years. Before, teachers wouldn’t think why a student never got any work from home completed or why they were always late to class in the morning. Teachers thought simply about if the student met the expectations or not. Research shows that students that have experienced trauma growing up can have their learning and behavior impacted.

I worry that it will be a struggle for me to recognize if a student has had this experience affect them. It is something that I never had when I was growing up and wasn’t surrounded by it much when I went to school. I think to help with this, connecting with students early can really help in this situation. If a student feels comfortable around their teacher, they are more likely to inform the teacher of these past or current experiences.

There are a couple strategies that I want to try to use in my classroom to help with this. Learning about student’s strengths and interests can help the teacher create activities and assessments that the student will enjoy. A strong structure and routine is also something I want to work on in my classroom. If students know what their day will look like and its consistent day to day, they will feel more comfortable. Being thrown curve balls each day can disrupt students and can make this difficult for them.

There are several things that come to mind when hearing this word. The main idea of differeniating insturction is to factor a student’s readiness or learning style before designing a lesson plan. This idea is important not only in elementay classrooms but classrooms throughout the school building. A teacher needs to know their students and their styles of learning before delivering a lesson. There are four main ways to differentiate in a classroom.

The first way, and the way I think of usually, is differeniating by content. Students are on differenet levels of understanding when it comes to content. Some may already have mastered the content and some might have partial mastery. Covering various levels of Bloom’s is a great way to help with differentiating.

The second way is through the process. As many know, every student learns differently. A teacher should try their best to familiarize themselves with each student in their classroom to pinpoint how each student achieves the greatest. Provide interactive parts of the lesson for hands-on learners, textbooks for word learners, and visual graphs for visual learners. Being a hands-on type learner myself, I want to provide these components throughout my lessons so students feel they can learn to the best of their ability.

Another way you can differentiate is the product. How students show what they’ve learned is the main idea of product. Some students may love book reports, while others love poster presentations. As long as the students are showing their knowledge of the content, it shouldn’t matter how students accomplish this. Variations of assessments is something I want to try to incorporate in my classroom.

Lastly, you can differentiate the learning environment. I want to create quiet spaces and spaces with flexible seating so students can feel comfortable in the layout of the classroom. If some students want to read alone instead of as a group that is also another aspect of the learning environment. Creating a safe and strong learning environment in the classroom will let students learn the best in the classroom. After all, they are stuck in this classroom for 8 hours a day, might as well make it an enjoyable place for them.

It’s important to have a vision and mission statement in a school building. Not only students, but parents know what the school stands for and can help work collaboratively with the best intention in the student. These statements are posted throughout the building and are well-known to students. Below are the statements that I would incorporate into my school.

Vision Statement: At Stewartville Elementary, our goal is to grow students into great leaders for today’s society. Students will learn essential traits early on to develop and succeed as leaders. With a strong emphasis on leadership, students will thrive in a classroom surrounded by hard working students.

Mission Statement: Stewartville faculty sets expectations that will help students flourish despite any cultural or diverse backgrounds. Students will be surrounded by school wide expectations that will stay identical throughout each classroom. With school wide expectations, students will understand what is expected of them. Teachers will provide diverse lessons that allows all backgrounds and learning styles to reach their full potential. Stewartville thrives on building a community style classroom throughout its buildings.

Life skills aren’t always something that teachers think about when developing lessons. Most teacher’s spend a majority of their time on learning standards and making sure to teach all the criteria, which of course is very important. However, one thing that I overlook and possibly others overlook, is teaching students life skills.

Communication is a big life skill especially for elementary students. When students don’t get what they want at a young age, they do what they’ve always done which is throw a tantrum. They have to learn that isn’t acceptable behavior anymore. This is where communication comes into play. If you don’t like something, you have to communicate and tell someone. If you don’t like someone calling you names, you communicate to them that you don’t like it. Teachers have to communicate as well with other teachers especially if they are new and need help throughout the year. I want to try to tie in communication activities with stories that align with other curriculum. If a character in a story communicates well, I want to focus some time on talking about that as well.

Resilience is another life skill that i think is important to develop in younger students. Kids should never be afraid of taking on challenges. I think resiliency is tied in with students with growth mindsets. I want to set up a classroom where students aren’t afraid to try new things or answer a question even if they aren’t 100% sure. Taking the easier road isn’t going to get students very far and I think trying to having a growth mindset friendly classroom developed early on in the year can help with teaching students to take on tough challenges.

Goal setting is also an important skill to teach students. Developing where you are at this point of time and where you want to end up can motivate students to work even harder. I think to add this to students in classroom, the teacher has to provide goals for students. Setting up portfolios for students is a great idea even if time consuming. I want to show students where they are right now on a certain subject and where we need to get them by the end of the year. This lets them know that they are improving and can see where they were a couple weeks ago compared to now. Goal setting is something that is going to benefit students through school and into the real world as well.

For my intervention, I chose to talk about CW FIT. I think it’s something that I would try in my classroom. My clinical teacher that I’m observing this semester uses it, and from what I can see has great success with it.

The main goal of CW FIT is for students to follow directions the first time and to save time in the classroom. Students are divided into teams and their goal is to get so many points throguhout the day. To recieve a point, the group has to be on-task and follow directions. In my clinical class, the teacher has her studenets in groups of 4 and each group gets to come up with their own fun team name. Team names vary from Unicorns to Centaurs. Establishing a theme and letting students come up with their own fun name can help too. When I first went in to observe, each group was named after Harry Potter houses.

At the beginning of the day or the lesson, the teacher tells the students what the reward for the team that reaches the amount of points receives. The amount of points varies. In the class I am observing, the first team to 10 points win. Students are motivated to get points because of the reward for the winning team. Some rewards that I have seen include extra Chromebook time at the end of the day and a dance session at the end of the day.

Some of the things that really stick out to me for this intervention is the implementation of a game. Anytime a teacher can make something fun or something new, students are more likely to work harder. Students also have to be responsible for their actions and their teammate’s. If your teammate is talking when the teacher is teaching, you might want to let them know to be back on task so your team can get the reward. Another great thing about the intervention is that there isn’t a lot of setting up or extra work for the teacher. You can keep track of points on the marker board and every teacher uses a timer throughout the day. I think CW FIT is something that I will want to try so I can get student’s working together and having fun while doing it.

For my theorist this week, I chose to research and talk about Abraham Maslow. As most people know, he is most famous for his hierarchy of needs. It is a motivational theory in psychology and has five tiers that are usually seen in a form of a pyramid. I think relating this to classroom management can benefit all students in a classroom.

The first stage is physiological needs which include food, water, rest, and warmth. Relating to classroom management, it’s important to student’s success that students properly eat and rest so they can achieve the best in the classroom. If anyone else is like me, I get a little cranky when I am hungry and could easily cause unwanted behaviors in the classroom. If a teacher knows that a student is not getting proper food and rest, the teacher might be able to work something out with a school councilor or other staff member to help this student.

The second stage is safety needs. A student needs to know they are safe and secure in a classroom. A student will be able to relax and stay a lot more calm in a class if they know they are safe and secure. A teacher can start working on a safe classroom environment on the first day of school so student’s can feel the sense of safety early on.

The third stage is belongingness and love needs. This is where friendships come into play. Promoting resources for students to be able to grow and create friendships in the classroom can make it easier for their social growth and will make their time in the classroom a lot more enjoyable.

In the fourth stage, Maslow talks about esteem needs. A feeling of accomplishment is something every student needs to feel. Whether they accomplish a goal they had been given, or just feeling accomplishmened in every day life, a student that knows they are accomplishing what they need, will be great learners in a classroom.

Lastly, self-actualization is the final part of the pyramid. Students need to achieve one’s full potential and its the teacher’s responsibility to challenge students and push students to their best. With each student at a different level, it makes it harder for a teacher to push each student. A close relationship with students along with assessments can make it easier for the teacher to see how much a teacher can challenge the student. In psychology, a proximity effect is talked about a lot for students. Finding that middle level of not too easy or not too hard of an assignment will keeps students working hard and not being bored.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs